Warning - boring old fart Safety diatribe - may upset immortal youngsters.

Learn how to dress for welding from TV?



I guess you have a helmet on, which is more that half the TV idiots who pretend to weld do.

That hood is a good way to catch sparks. Will warm the back of your head if they get cozy and burn.

The "sunburn" your arms get may come back to haunt you later in life.

Welding, like motorcycling, is a good place for lots of leather - or at least tightly woven flame-resistant cotton. Try a cape sleeve and bib if you find a jacket too hot. And actual welding gloves - you're wearing rubber gloves by the look of it???

I know I know....but I didn't feel the need to put a leather jacket on when I was just throwing down some tack welds.  and I forgot my leather gloves at work today which I def regretted.  Latex gloves don't block hot embers very well...  oh well.   chicks dig scars right?

yea you dont need a leather jacket who cares. and besides if your spendin all your time indoors welding, you gotta get tan somehow, why not get tan by weldin.

As my friend Paul loves to say, and to put on his truck, "LIFES SHORT,  WELD NAKED!"

Quote from: gregvhen on October 14, 2009, 09:43:01 PM
"LIFES SHORT,  WELD NAKED!"

Well, that's certainly one way to make sure that life is short, and painful. Of course, skin cancer only happens to other people...

Quote from: kappa2006 on October 14, 2009, 08:24:38 PM
I forgot my leather gloves at work

Basic welding gloves are certainly cheap enough to have a pair at work and a pair at home.

http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/weldingdepot/102112.html

Quote from: kappa2006 on October 14, 2009, 08:24:38 PM
  Latex gloves don't block hot embers very well...  oh well.   chicks dig scars right?

I think that only applies to large cuts and bullet holes. Little burn marks all over your body doesn't have quite the same appeal..

lesson learned......moving on

Well its been a week and progress has been slow.  But.... its starting to come along.   Finished up welding the subframe and cleaned up the welds.  Also welded in supports for my solo seat.




Took a 2007 Yamaha R1's seat....

pulled the leather covering off...

and "modified" the plastic base to fit my subframe and to wrap tightly around my tank...



Next I wanted to mock up the rear swinger / R6 rear shock combo to make sure everything was a go...



Also decided to ditch my previous plan of chopping my 2 bro's can to use for my undertail.   Instead.....


One of the 2 cans from...you guessed it.  2007 R1.    I think once its chopped down by about 4", it should flow nicely with the tail.

To be continued....

just one thing... Thats gonna look sick. 

It's gonna be interesting to see how this turns out 

I need to weld more...

Am liking the subframe idea. Might have to pinch it to fit the SV650 tail.

Nice, I love all these tail conversions.  I need a damn welder!!!! 

Since my last post, I finally finished up the subframe.  I ended up changing the design a bit after seeing it finished.  But I'm happy with it now.  Also got the battery box mounts fabbed up (sealed gel battery)  I started my tail fairing mold too.  I purchased a sheet of insulation from lowes (1" by 1' by 8' for $8), and some spray adhesive (regretting not going with 3M because the cheap stuff is eating away at the foam).  I started by cutting pieces and stacking them together to make a block.  Then I mounting it to the frame.  Once that was done.....I started getting the basic shape I wanted.  Still very far from being complete, but its coming along.  So far I've been focusing on the side profile of the rear section of the tail, and I already have about 4 hours into it so far.  So the front of the tail fairing is NOT shaped yet, except for where the seat meets the fairing.

Also, my Katana rear wheel came in the other day! 

One thing I've noticed....I'm slowly drifting away from my initial plan.  Oh well.  Thinking about ditching the undertail exhaust now and mounting duals down low, parallel to the ground in front of the rear wheel.   we'll see...

Wauw! Awesome work. Very well done. 
I'm looking forward to see how the final result turns out.

your not really just using a 110v flex core welder for something thats going to see street time are you

I'm using a 115v mig welder w/ solid wire, and I sleived the joints between the subframe and the frame.  Also, I did several tests on scrap 1" square tubing to get the voltage and wire feed speed perfect, giving me the proper penetration.  The rear portion of the subframe won't be supporting any weight other than the tail fairing and taillight.  I'm confident that the subframe will be more than strong enough to support my weight.

You mean Flux core Josh....And welding with flux core  would be strong enough if welded correctly- welding wire flux core is uglier and leaves slag and requires cleaning the welds after  and is not as good as MIG...  As Kappa said.... it's all about the right  penetration in the weld.

Kappa- you using CO2/Argon ? Didn't see a bottle near your welder.

Looks Good Kappa.... for your next foam adventure- they sell glue for styro-foam at most kraft stores if it melts too much for your needs.

I'm using argon.   and thanks for the tip on the foam adhesive.  Will definately go that route next time.

Thanks for all the comments!

Nice project.

One thing though i think you should change, is the angle of the rear fairing from the seat. like right behind the seat the foam is too vertical needs to be cut at an angle a little more. For my liking anyway, just my .02.


Question: when you make the rear faring final, do you cover that foam in fiberglass cloth, and resin? or are you just using the foam for a mold and removing it after youve made the plastic part?

After the foam mold is finished, I plan on first attempting to cover the mold with foil and then fiberglassing over that.  Then the mold should release from the foberglass fairing easily.  But if the foil doesn't cover the tail properly, I'll just glass over the foam, and then remove the foam by dissolving with gasoline or something similar.  Hoping the foil method works out so I can save the mold for another tail....just in case.

As for the tail design, I'm still far from being finished with the shape.  I won't be leaving the area behind the seat like that.  Just haven't gotten to that part yet.  It will definately be cut down, and sloped up to the rear.

if you carve out the inside and glass it too and put a lid on it you could have a built in beer cooler